Page 25 of Legal Passion
She leaned back and smiled with satisfaction. “Oh, that’s true.” And she wasn’t certain who was more shocked—the defendant, his lawyer or her boss.
“You didn’t tell me you had evidence to disprove Mueller’s alibi.” And he sounded petulant that she’d kept that information from him.
She shrugged. “It only just recently came to my attention.” Thanks to Street Legal’s little office mole.
Was it some ex-lover of Stone’s? Or another of the partners? She could understand a woman being bitter if Stone stopped having sex with her.
But giving out the practice’s secrets went beyond scorned. That was vindictive. Just like her boss.
“You should have told me the minute you got it,” he said. “I would have taken the case then.”
Which was why she hadn’t told him.
“But I will be taking it now.”
She held back her protest to offer a weak nod. “Of course, but aren’t you worried?”
“What? You think I’ll lose it?” He snorted derisively, but she saw the nerves flicker in his beady little eyes.
“That must be what Stone Michaelsen thinks,” Hillary said. “Or else why would he have put out those lies undermining our department?”
Wilson Tremont’s forehead furrowed as he tried to follow her. “You’re saying he thinks you could beat him but that I can’t?”
Hillary shrugged. “Of courseIknow you’re the better lawyer of the two of us,” she lied. “And despite that press release, there is no way I will ever have your job.” That was no lie. She shuddered at the thought.
No. Stone had gotten it right that first night in her office. Well, that right in addition to all the other things he’d done right to her.
She wanted to be a judge someday. She wanted to dole out justice, not play the games her boss had to in order to keep his job. But she wasn’t above playing them herself in order to keep this case.
“You’ve already pointed out how I know nothing about politics,” she reminded him. Of course, he was wrong, but he didn’t need to know that. She’d changed her last name, so nobody would know that. “And I have no interest in learning.”
Except for when she ran for district judge. Then she’d employ everything she knew. And she knew a hell of a lot.
Her boss nodded. “That’s right. You’ve said that.”
“Yeah, Allison McCann and Michaelsen couldn’t have lied more in that press release than they did.” She rubbed her chin and acted as if she were trying to figure out why. “What could they be up to?”
She’d led him to the water, but he had to lean over and drink himself. And he did.
His face flushed as he realized what she had. Stone Michaelsen thought she was the better lawyer. “He thinks he can beat me!” He sucked in a breath as if Stone was there and had punched him.
“So you’re right to take the case from me,” she said, as if she agreed with his power grab. “You can prove him wrong.”
Wilson stood silently in her doorway.
“You’ve beaten him before, right?” she asked.
And his face flushed a deeper shade of red.
She pitched her voice low as if she was confiding a secret to him. But he already knew. “I’ve never beaten him before, either.”
But she would this time—if he and McCann hadn’t fully manipulated her power-hungry boss.
“He’s always pulling some last-minute trick,” Hillary continued. Like seducing her...
“That must be why he and that PR firm wanted to cause the look of dissension in our office.” She sighed. “Once you take the case from me, it’ll look like you fell for their game.”
Wilson cussed. “Then they’ll be laughing at us in the media.”
She sighed and nodded. “Probably. And bragging about how they played us.”
“I will not have that,” he said. “You’re keeping this case. I’m sure you can handle whatever game Stone Michaelsen is playing.”
That made one of them. She could handle anything Stone threw at her in the media or in the courtroom. But when he touched her, when he kissed her...
Game over.
He won every time.
No. She was smart to stay away from him. No matter how much she wanted him, she couldn’t risk it. She was not going to lose the case or her self-control. She’d already known her career depended on her winning. Now she wondered if her heart might as well...
